Unspeakable Words: Deluxe Edition

Unspeakable Words was an awesome little word game when it came out in 2007. The mechanics are clever and the original art was amazing! The game play is simple, fast, and fun.

The Gameplay:

A deck of 148 cards getting shuffled, and seven (7) cards are dealt to each player.

Next each player takes 5 Cthulhu meeples (Cthuples?, Ctheeples?) That represent the players Sanity.

On your turn you either use your cards to make a word or discard your entire hand to draw a new one but end your turn.

Next is scoring (a clue big scores aren’t your friend). You add up the cards value, a cards value is determined by the number of angles in the letter (example: A is worth 5 and O is worth 0). Additionally you must write down the word as it cannot be used by another player this game.

Now you check your sanity… you will roll a D20, your roll must be equal to or greater than your card score. A roll of 20 is an automatic success regardless of your cards score.

If your roll fails, ie you roll under your total, you lose a sanity (Cthulhu meeple). When you run out of sanity you are out of the game.

But wait don’t despair if you are going insane, when you are down to but one sanity all words are fair game, after all you have gone crazy so who are we to deny your claim that “thjilp”(17 points, even a crazy person would be insane to try and roll against this) is a word in your head.

The game ends when a player successfully reaches 100 points or if there is only 1 sane player left.

The Review:

Unspeakable words is a great game. It’s fun the whole family can enjoy and it’s great for a party. I can’t say enough good about the game itself. The game developers did an amazing job, the art though different from the original is still fantastic, with super cute Cthulhu all over the place. This game will definitely see regular rotation on Game Nights with friends and family.

However, playroom games who kickstarted this release, handled it incredibly poorly. They managed to leave most of their 3,746 backers with negative feelings about it. They delivered more than a year late and though they had a plethora of delays they rarely, if ever, communicated anything to the backers. Their poor service and management doesn’t detract from the game it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth in regards to this game company. For me this was the second game I had ever supported via kickstarter, and the first and only disappointment from kickstarter. Having delivered 14 months late I would never back another project from this company. Truthfully it is unlikely I would ever have the opportunity again as Playroom Games was recently acquired by the Upper Deck games brand. In all this game is fantastic, I just don’t have any love for the production company.

Look at all them Cthulhu

This package included all you see above, 148 letter cards, 2 “Unspeakable letter cards”, 1 K is for exploding kithulhus card, 1 elder sign promo card, one yellow sign promo card, 40 Cthulhu meeples (honestly not as awesome as those in the original set but still cool), a custom glow in the dark D20, and a standard deck of playing cards featuring the chibi style Lovecraftian monsters from the games.